S56 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



that every man ought to be versed in who was engaged 

 in agriculture ; for, of all employmgnts in this world, a 

 man requires in this the largest amount of business- 

 knowledge and application. Afterwards should come the 

 education in practice under a practical farmer, to form 

 the superstructure. Without this no man, scarcely, 

 could ever become a good practical farmer. These remarks 

 were the result of long and close observa'ion on his 

 part. When he first turned his attention to agricultural 

 subjects, he found it necessary to leave his laboratory 

 behind him, go into the country, and study under a 

 farmer's as an agricultural pupil. 



Mr. S. SroxEY (Kensington) said he had now had the 

 pleasure of listening to three papers by Mr. Bond, the 

 two first of which were certainly among the most useful 

 as well as able and eloquent essays that he had ever 

 listened to in that room. He was sorry, however, that 

 he could not express himself quite as fivourably of the 

 last, which, nlthnugh it was equally well written, was 

 wanting in those practical suggestions which distin- 

 guished its predecessors. In the tirst place, in severely 

 criticising, not without justice, the ordinary course of 

 education open to the young farmer, Mr. Bond had 

 fallen into the mistake of condemning the system when 

 the chief blame lay with the educators. The great mis- 

 fortune of the farmers was that there had not been open 

 to them a useful class of schools, and that they were in 

 reality furnished only with chance teachers. With 

 regard to classical learning, he did not know anything 

 that would facilitate a knowledge of the exact sciences 

 more than the acquirement of Greek and Latin ; but 

 the farmers had paid for classical learning, and their 

 sons had learnt neither that nor anything else. 

 (Laughter). What farmers wanted was that educa.ion 

 should be brought home to their own door ; and he be- 

 lieved that if they took advantage of the education which 

 certificated schoolmasters were now getting, and formed 

 themselves into associations for the support of schools 

 conducted by such men in their own neighbourhood, 

 they would be able to command an education that was 

 at once good and cheap. He also thought that the 

 farmers who had sons to bring up should lay in a store 

 of books to which the young men might always have 

 free access. As to the system of competitive examina- 

 tions, if they employed that gauge to practical employ- 

 ments, the results would be deceptive. The schoolmaster 

 wcjuld naturally be encouraged to take pains with boys 

 who were clever, whilst he neglected those who were 

 not; and the result would be, that they would get a 

 small number of boys who had distinguished themselves, 

 and a large mass who had been left behind in despair. 

 The great object of education should be to educate the 

 whole class, and that could not be done by means of 

 honorary rewards, which had been well designated by 

 the Bishop of London as that sort of certificate which a 

 man carried about in his pocket, and which nobody 

 wanted to see. One of the great arts of a farmer should 

 be the power of observing, and the ability to record the 

 results of his observation. There was nothing like keep- 

 ing a journal ; it was one of the most admirable methods 

 of self-education, and cultivated the mind to a degree 



of which they could hardly form an idea. (Hear, 

 hear), 



Mr. Davison (Croydon Farmers' Club) said that 

 for the intelligence which they possessed, farmers 

 were chiefly indebted to the schoolmasters who had 

 been cried down on that occasion. He took that 

 opportunity of standing up in vindication of the 

 schoolmasters of Great Britain. He had associated 

 with them extensively, and he knew that they were 

 anxious, as a class, so to educate the children entrusted 

 to their care that they should become good practical 

 men. In the Utopian principles which had been 

 propounded that evening by Mr. Bond he certainly could 

 not concur, as he thought they were incompatible with 

 making a youth a good farmer. For his own part, he 

 regarded the father as the principal teacher of the boy, 

 if firming was to be his business ; and he thought it 

 might he safely left to themselves, without the interven- 

 tion of colleges, to bring up their sons in a manner 

 worthy of the race of English yeomen. The rising ge- 

 neration of farmers he considered a fine example to the 

 world at large. He could readily make allowances for 

 their love of field-sports. They had little society in 

 their own neighbourhoods ; and such amusements sup- 

 plied them with necessary and healihful recreation and 

 relaxation from toil (Hear, hear). When at home, they 

 studied history and science; and his whole experience 

 taught him that they were a highly scientific class of 

 young men. 



Mr. NocKOLDS (Stansted, Essex) concurred in the 

 opinion that the power of observing and recording facts 

 and phenomena connected with agricultural pursuits was 

 a most valuable portion of a farmer's education. He 

 remembered that, when he quitted school, and was 

 placed out to learn his business, his master would, as 

 opportunities occurred, point out particular trees, ex- 

 plaining their distinctive characteristics, and the pur- 

 poses to which the timber might be applied, and make 

 other observations relative to familiar objects, which he 

 could not fail to treasure up in his mind ; and he be- 

 lieved that he had acquired more information by these 

 practical means than he could have done by any amount 

 of mere theoretical teaching. He had two sisters, who 

 were both older than himself, and who exercised a sort 

 of double Queen Victoria power over him. They were 

 very clever, and were well versed in chronology from 

 the days of Adam down to the present time. In short, 

 they knew everything (laughter). On one occasion, the 

 conversation happening to turn on Henry the Eighth's 

 wives, he had forgotten what wss their number, and 

 could only recollect that he was brute enough to cut off 

 the heads of one or two of them. " Don't you know 

 how many wives he had ?" was the question. " No, I 

 don't," he replied ; " but do you see that little bird .'" 

 "Yes." "Do you know what it is?" The young 

 ladies confessed they did not. " That," he rejoined in 

 triumph— " that is a hen-chaffinch; and I think, my 

 dears, you had better make the acquaintance of the 

 common things by which you are surrounded, than 

 trouble yourselves about Henry the Eighth and his 

 wives" (Hear, hear, and laughter). 



